"They're... they're all so young." whispered Harris, horrified as he watched the people they passed in their covered wagons on the way out of Waset.

"A commoner does not live as long as those like us. Not enough white magic to go around."

"But..." Harris protested.

"Many have tried to lift them up. All failed."

"It is the will of the gods, we must accept it and move on."

"Just be glad you are not a commoner."

To Harris, it all sounded like excuses. He swallowed the first several angry retorts that came to mind and asked, "How old are they when they die, typically?"

"It varies. If they survive childhood, then old age at 25. Death by 35, no later."

"I'm 27!" said Harris indignantly.

"You are not a commoner."

The others could see that Harris was upset, but they could not understand why. To them, it seemed as if Harris was crying over spilled milk. Sure, the fate of commoners was sad, but what were they supposed to do about it? That was just the way things were.

They passed a young boy who was watching them from the side of the road with keen interest. He started coughing and his mother hastily brought him inside.

"What if that boy was born a noble, but abandoned by his parents before he could talk?" asked Harris. "Or what if his parents were divorced and hated each other? What if they took steps to force their child out of his birth class and prevent their peers from finding out, out of spite to the relationship they once had? How would you even know?"

"Maybe he would look like his parents."

"I don't," said Harris flatly. "I look like my uncle, who lived very, very far away. And I don't look like any of my other known relatives at all."

The others looked at him with shock and horror.

"...Did that happen to you?"

"Not exactly," said Harris. "It was a lot more complicated than that. Things work differently in my home world. But there are some significant similarities."

"How did you make it out of that?" one of the others asked him. "You must have found a way back to nobility, or you wouldn't be so wise and well-spoken."

"I never did," said Harris. "Or at least, not entirely. But I was about to, before I came to this world. And I was going to bring all the other commoners with me. You see, things worked differently in my home world..."

And so Harris began his tale as the others listened with rapt attention.

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"My home world didn't have any magic. Our priests didn't cast real spells. All they had were their words and ideas. Our version of this nation, the Ancient Egyptian empire, had collapsed thousands of years ago. A nation called Egypt still existed in the land Ancient Egypt used to be, but they were not really the same nation. Much had changed over the thousands of years since the pyramids were still young.

"Four hundred years ago, on the continent of Europe to the north, a man named Francis Bacon invented humankind's first Foundational Method, the Investigative method, which he named 'Science'. In its purest most simplified form, the method had four steps:

1. Ask a specific yes or no question about something in the world around you which you wish to better understand.

2. Predict whether the answer to that question is yes or no.

3. Test the world to see if you're right or wrong. The test should be designed so that there are only two possible outcomes, each of which indicating a 'yes' or a 'no' answer to your question.

4. Infer the most likely implications of that outcome based on the knowledge you already have available to you.

"The method was simple, easy to learn, easy to teach and easy to use. And the more times it was used, the more knowledge we accumulated. So many of our problems were solved by applying the Investigative method. Too many. The people of my world grew arrogant and complacent. Many of us believed that this method could be used to solve any and all problems forever.

"But the Investigative method was only meant to be used for solving mysteries. It was never meant to be used for anything else. But the method could still be poorly applied to other kinds of problems, so long as those problems were re-framed to make it sound as if they were mysteries.

"The Europeans used this method to gain much knowledge. That knowledge allowed them to drastically transform the way they produced materials and resources as well as how much they could produce at a time. Their weapons became increasingly powerful compared to the weapons of the rest of the world, and so the Europeans conquered the world. And all the places they conquered were transformed to work more like the nations of Europe.

Perhaps the most powerful of these European empires in their prime was the British empire, whose homeland was known as England. Their language was called English, which is what we are speaking now. The same language you call 'the Sacred Tongue'. It wasn't considered sacred in my home world."

"As more time passed, many nations increasingly redesigned their institutions and cultural landscapes to reap the rewards of the Investigative method as efficiently as possible. Making things more efficient meant simplifying them, which meant reducing the number of people who were allowed to contribute to or make important decisions, as well as reducing the number of important decisions people could make. Because of this, the divide between our nobles and commoners became wider and wider.

"Despite this, many of the poorest of us commoners could still reasonably expect to live until we were at least fifty, oftentimes seventy years old or more. But we typically did not live well. Many of us were manipulated, trapped, abused and forced to waste away our days doing useless busywork which helped no one. Our right to eat and to live in our own homes was typically taken from us if we refused to do that useless busywork. And if our nobility didn't take away those rights, then instead they would place heavy restrictions on our access to resources and on what kinds of choices we were allowed to make.

"They tried to control us. They tried to control me. They tried to stop me from growing up and from living my own life.

"I had plenty of food and water, I had access to soap to wash my hands and bathe myself with, I had enough clothes to wear, and I even had devices which allowed me to quickly communicate with strangers over long distances. But I had almost no respect or freedom, and my opportunities for truly connecting with other people were very limited. My body would've been in no real danger, if not for the fact that my spirit was struggling to survive. I am a human being! Not a bug, not a dog, not a tree, and not a stone! I'm human!

"But my world's entire civilization and its cultures were set up in such a way that nearly everyone I ever knew was motivated to treat me as if I wasn't. As if they believed that food, water and shelter was all I truly needed to live and everything else was a mere privilege. They often treated each other that way too.

"Their constant mistreatment of each other created a spiritual epidemic of demotivation and collective underconfidence. Most people were too scared of each other, too scared of getting hurt and too scared of losing what they already had. Too scared to dare to dream higher. Too scared to live their lives. And so more and more of us withdrew from civilization and hid away in our own private little spaces.

"As more and more of us left our civilization it became increasingly mechanistic and empty, which allowed those of the high nobles who still remained free reign to do whatever they wanted regardless of whether it was benevolent or wise.

"This downward spiral of fear, exclusion, conflict and abuse threatened to destroy humankind. My brother and I were going to change that. We were planning to inspire humankind to teach itself to save itself using its own power. We were going to remind our people that they have that power deep inside and had it all along. We were going to remind them of how to relax, find meaning and have fun in their lives. We were studying and preparing to do that. That was our mission.

"But then I got transported here. I have no idea if I'll ever make it back home and see my brother again. I don't know how he's going to make it without me. We're a team."

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"You still want to return to your world, despite how your people treated you," one of the others in their wagon said, a strange sense of wonder in her voice. "You still feel homesick."

Harris nodded.

"Thank you for telling us your story," another of them said, solemnly. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

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In a hidden realm beyond the sight of mortals, an enormous ibis and a much larger goose stared at each other in shock.

"What do you make of this?" asked the goose.

"It seems unbelievable," the ibis answered. "How could mere mortals, let alone commoners, do all that?"

"And yet this one is telling the truth?" the goose pressed.

"Or at least he believes he is," the ibis nodded. "I sensed no deception from him. I suppose I could put his heart on the scale, just to be sure..."

"No need, I trust your judgment," said the goose. "If that changes I will let you know. For now, let us continue to watch over this strange mortal, 'Ha-ris'."

"Yes sir!" the ibis agreed. It saluted with its right wing and took off into the night.

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Author's note: And that's episode 3! This time we got a glimpse Harris's backstory and motivations. Hope you enjoyed that! Stay tuned for episode 4!